


Repurposing

by Traxits



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Moving On, Original Game Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 08:26:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7632541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traxits/pseuds/Traxits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Advent Children, Cloud is looking for purpose all over again.  The delivery service is simply too much time to think.  He wasn't expecting to find that purpose in the abandoned slums of Midgar via a certain redheaded Turk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Repurposing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Puppy-Shaped-Clouds (KaydenReece)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaydenReece/gifts).



> For your reference, [this](http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Deenglow) is a Deenglow.

The office was empty after the medical books were all gone. Cloud stared at the space, the same way he had almost every day for the past few weeks. Interacting with the others had gotten better at least, though he doubted it would ever be easy.

Tifa, he knew, still looked at him and watched for her childhood friend. He wasn't sure that would ever stop. He wasn't sure how to tell her that he'd been looking for her friend too. He'd been trying to find him ever since— 

He shook his head, focusing instead on the pile of messages sitting by his phone. It was in Marlene's hand for the most part, carefully shaped but perfectly printed letters, that told him who had called. He'd read them half a dozen times since the rain had washed away the geostigma. He hadn't called any of them back yet.

Doubtless, they'd moved on to a new delivery service or had, at some point, gotten ahold of Tifa. He dragged his fingers over the edges of them, just to feel the paper against his skin. Then he tucked them back under the corner of the phone so they wouldn't blow away. It was purely habit because it hardly mattered if they vanished or not.

A noise drew his attention to the door, and his eyes narrowed as he met Reno's gaze.

"Ever goin' to call any of 'em, or you jus' plan on leavin' 'em all hangin', Strife?"

Cloud frowned, and he shook his head. "Doesn't matter," he said, and he straightened up. His hand flexed, missing the weight of the sword even though he knew that the Turks drank at the bar these days. They were as much a fixture there as Denzel and Marlene were. As Barret was, when he was in town. That didn't make this easier, although it was oddly freeing to meet Reno's eyes.

Maybe because Reno had only actually known him after.... everything.

Reno grinned, slow and easy, and he leaned against the door. "Tifa's wonderin' if you're comin' down for dinner, or if she's sendin' Marlene up later with it, yo."

Cloud raised an eyebrow, and he folded his arms across his chest. "What, you didn't offer to deliver it?"

"Well now," Reno purred, pushing off the door frame to take a step closer to Cloud. "I didn't know you were interested, yeah? If you want me bringin' you dinner—"

"I don't."

But this was familiar. Easy. When had this become something that Cloud was used to? And with Reno, of all people. Who knew. Maybe that had been the Turk's goal the whole time.

The silence stretched between them then, and Cloud let it until he couldn't stand it any longer. He glanced back up, and Reno hadn't moved. He just stood there, watching Cloud, eyes sliding between Cloud's hand and the desk in front of him. The message light on the phone blinked. It was full because Cloud hadn't been able to bring himself to listen to them yet. He listened to the messages on his PHS. That was more than enough.

Cloud hadn't realized that Reno could be still for so long, though. He swallowed, and then he asked, "Did you need something else?"

Reno tilted his head, and Cloud didn't miss the sword this time. That was probably progress. Tifa would call it progress, even if Cloud wasn't so sure.

"You still doin' it?"

Cloud frowned as he met Reno's gaze again. "Doing what, exactly?"

Reno nodded toward the phone. The stack of messages under the edge of it. "Th' delivery service." He took another step closer, and he held his hands up. His arms were bare since he wasn't in the suit for once, so it was safe enough. There were only so many places he could hide the mag rod, after all. Cloud flexed his hands and made himself relax as he looked back down at the bare surface of the desk.

He almost missed the notes and the books he'd been working through. It had given him something to do. Something to think about and turn over and over in his head that wasn't memory. Or the lack thereof. Or the knowing that he was never going to be what he'd used to be.

Without it, deliveries were far worse. There was too much time to think. Too much time to—

"'Cause I'm thinkin' it's not doin' it for you."

Cloud's attention snapped back to Reno. "Out," he said sharply, and Reno grinned again.

"Yeah," he said. "Out. Tell you what." He pulled a scrap of paper from a pocket of his jeans, a pen from behind his ear, and wrote something. He left it on the corner of the desk. "When you get ready for a project, let me know, yeah? Got you one at this address, yo."

He left then, and Cloud watched him go.

* * *

Cloud ignored that scrap of paper for almost two weeks. He might have managed longer if Marlene hadn't found it. She stuck it right on top of those messages under his phone, where he had to look at it every time he went into the office.

Finally, he took the paper, and he left with it. It was a Midgar address— a slum address, at that.

Cloud wasn't sure what he'd expected, but as he parked the bike outside the house, he realized that this... wasn't it.

The building was intact, which didn't surprise him. Reno wouldn't be using anything less. What was surprising was the clear lock on the door. He could hear someone swearing under their breath from somewhere. After a moment, he spotted the second door. A garage.

He left his bike out front, and he shifted the weight of the sword he carried.

(That weight was more familiar than anything else, even if it was lighter these days. A living legacy, and what kind of legacy was Cloud even? Zack and Aerith both...)

He shook his head as he pushed the door to the garage open. There was no lock there, and he stopped short, staring at the chaos inside.

There were parts everywhere, and his first thought was that he'd stumbled into a chop shop. He was going to _kill_ Reno for not warning him. Then he spotted the red hair on the floor, and he looked around himself.

It wasn't a chop shop. There were only bikes here, and more importantly, all the bikes looked... similar. Similar enough to exchange parts.

"Yo!" Reno twisted around to look at him, but he didn't get up from where he was lying. There was a wrench a few inches from his hand. Judging from the parts, Reno had been working on getting something off the bike in front of him. Cloud crossed his arms, studying him.

"You didn't steal these, did you?" he asked.

Reno snorted, grinned, and pushed himself up to his feet, even though he stayed in a crouch. There was a beer bottle beside him, and Cloud wasn't at all surprised when Reno tossed one at him too.

"Don't trust me? Prob'ly smart. Nah, man. Didn't steal 'em. Been buyin' 'em as I find 'em, yeah? Almost got enough parts now."

Cloud's arm dropped to let the beer bottle swing by his side, and he spotted one particular pile of parts near the back. The materia-green fairing had been destroyed, lay around it in glittering splinters. Cloud's brows furrowed as he tried to picture what it must have looked like. Then his eyes widened.

"Wait, you're rebuilding a Deenglow?"

Reno chuckled, and he raised his beer bottle in a mock toast. "My baby, yo," he said, and he took a long pull from the bottle. Cloud hesitated before he crossed the room to look, shoving his beer back into Reno's hand as he passed by.

"How long have you been working on this?"

Cloud didn't look back at Reno, but then, he didn't have to in order to know that Reno had probably tilted his head and reached up to rub the back of his neck. Instead, Cloud dropped down to inspect the pile of parts. It was more intact than he'd initially thought, and the chassis itself was solid.

"Since I found her after Meteorfall," Reno murmured, and Cloud heard him crossing the room to stand nearby. Probably so that he could watch as Cloud ran his fingers over everything, checking to see what all Reno had already done.

She'd been a racing bike at some point in her life. A lot of her modifications looked like what Cloud had done to Fenrir. He'd always told Tifa it was to make the deliveries faster, but the simple fact was that Cloud probably would have done it even without the deliveries as an excuse. It was soothing, working on the bike. There were clearly labeled parts and clearly outlined techniques for fixing it. It wasn't like trying to piece himself back together.

He glanced over at Reno, who stood there looking at the bike instead of at Cloud, the beer bottles both held loosely in his hands at his side. Cloud swallowed.

"Two years, and you don't have her up and running?" he asked, and Reno snorted before he shook his head.

"Didn't have time to work on her right at first. Too busy with... everything else, yo."

Too busy with Rufus. And Tseng. Though both of them seemed to have recovered just fine.

Cloud nodded as he picked up one of the shattered fairing pieces. The plastic had some bulging where it had overheated. Cloud wondered if it had been on top of the Plate during Meteorfall. There was a residue that he'd seen on more than a few things that had been.

"Th' original stuff," Reno offered, and Cloud nodded again. "Figured I'd worry about th' fairing last, all things given. Spent most of my time jus' tryin' to find th' parts I'd need, yeah?"

"The Deenglow wasn't a popular model," Cloud said, and he stood up, dropping the piece of the fairing he'd been inspecting. "Not a Shinra bike, though," he added as he looked over at Reno.

Reno laughed. "I wasn't a Shinra boy when I fell in love with her."

For a long moment, they were both quiet, looking at each other. Then Cloud took the beer Reno had tossed to him earlier.

"Let me see what you have," he said.

* * *

What Reno had turned out to be a lot of junk, but to be honest, that was what Cloud had expected. He'd faced the same problems when he'd worked on Fenrir. The challenge was not only figuring out what could be salvaged but how to adapt pieces that were not meant to fit on the same bike.

He also discovered that he had more free time to work on it than the Turk did. He wasn't sure what Rufus had Reno doing, but they were rarely in the garage at the same time. He did notice that Reno left him things when he'd been in, however. A fresh pack of beers or a plate from some restaurant in Edge that Reno must have liked. Sometimes, it was something less obvious. Once he'd walked in and there had been a new hook on the wall for him to hang the sword from. Another time, he came in to discover a new toolbox tucked over by the pieces Cloud had been working on.

The times Reno was in there with him wasn't as bad as he'd expected either. Reno filled the silence, and he talked about everything and nothing without ever requiring Cloud to answer. It was soothing, on some level, and Cloud realized after the second night of it that he no longer wondered how Rude stood the redhead's constant chattering. Reno had a way of finding the right tone to talk in. That he didn't seem to care if Cloud interjected or not made the whole thing far less stressful.

Not to mention the few times Cloud did pop something off that was probably meaner than it should have been, all it did was make Reno grin at him.

It was nice, and it made it easier when he went back to the bar. He could remember how a conversation went after a night of listening to Reno talk.

More importantly, it made the deliveries easier.

He didn't spend the time thinking. He spent the time watching for bikes tucked under scrap; they were so often overlooked in the mountains of metal that needed to be reworked, after all. And Reno had given him enough gil to buy anything useful that he ran across.

Not that he often had to pay for them. Most of the time, people were just grateful to get rid of it. Or they asked him to deliver something in exchange, and he didn't mind doing that.

When they finally got the Deenglow put together, complete with the fairing, it looked a little odd, but that was to be expected since it had a two-wheeled chassis instead of Fenrir's three. It purred lowly when they cranked it.

Reno whooped, threw an arm around Cloud's shoulder, and leaned over to clink their beer bottles together in a toast. Cloud smiled, and he set the still-full bottle aside as he leaned over to check the engine. He wanted to watch it move and make sure everything was smooth. When he leaned back, he wiped his forehead with his hand. Reno snorted before handing him one of the blue paper towels that he seemed to have found in bulk somewhere.

Cloud ducked his head, realizing that he must have smeared grease across his skin, and he wiped his face with the towel before he tilted his head back up.

"There. All done, Reno. She should be okay," he murmured.

Reno nodded, and he dropped down onto the bike's seat with an ease that proved just how familiar he was with her. Cloud's smiled as Reno turned to look over his shoulder at him, red hair glinting in the light of the setting sun.

"We'll have to race at some point, yo," he said, and Cloud snorted, half choking on the laugh in his throat.

The gleam of Reno's grin was all the proof that Cloud needed that him laughing had been the _goal_. Somehow, that only made him laugh a little harder.

"Yeah," he managed after a second. "After you learn how to drive it again, maybe."

"Oh, it's on, Strife," Reno retorted, and he laughed too, pushing his hand through his hair as he leaned back on the bike. "Jus' you wait. I'll smoke you th' first time we race, yeah?"

Cloud glanced down at the bike, and he considered it. "You can try," he said. "We'll get Tuesti to open up the highway for it."

"Better watch it. Reeve'll have you buildin' bikes for th' whole WRO before you realize it, yeah?"

Cloud hesitated, thinking about that for a second. He glanced around the garage, at the dozens of half-butchered bikes they'd used to put this one together. Every rebuild would be a puzzle all over again, a brand new project to work on. Something to focus on.

He ducked his head, glancing down at the grease on the floor. "Well," he said slowly, and he lifted his eyes to meet Reno's again, "that might not be so bad, yo."

Reno's grin widened.


End file.
